Caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and all creatures great and small,

I’m trying out the Word Press feature “press this.” It is a feature where I can copy from a newspaper article and click “press this” and it puts it in a post for the blog, with attribution. It saves time writing new posts from scratch. The following is the “press this” article, followed with additional information.

Posted: Monday, September 21, 2015 11:01 amTULSA (AP) –

Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating the agency after a volunteer deputy fatally shot an unarmed man. Grand jurors have been conducting a probe of Glanz’s office for the past seven weeks. At least 19 current or former sheriff’s office employees and others have been called upon to testify, including fired Maj. Shannon Clark, demoted Capt. Billy McKelvey and former Maj. Tom Huckeby, the Tulsa World reported.

The investigation was launched after former reserve deputy Robert Bates fatally shot Eric Harris, who was unarmed, on April 2. Bates has said he mistook his hand gun for a stun gun. After the shooting, it was discovered that officer Robert Bates hadn’t received adequate training over the years of his service.

Bates has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death. Glanz confirmed the subpoena Thursday after a swearing-in ceremony for 21 cadets. He declined to comment further on his upcoming grand jury appearance next week.

The reserve deputy program has been temporarily suspended, and full-time deputies will provide security this fall at the Tulsa State Fair, a service traditionally covered by reserve deputies.“If they are doing their duty and something happens and they make a mistake and they’re charged with a crime, then I think I have some responsibility to try to assist them with that,” Glanz said. “I know Bates has lost a lot of money and his reputation’s been severely criticized in this community, and it’s uncalled for. It’s not good.”Regardless of the investigation, Glanz said he’s confident about the future of the deputy reserve program at the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.“We do it right, I believe,” he said. “I think this one situation really has brought a spotlight, and I’m not sure it was all called for.”

Newsoklahoma reports that the hearing was closed to the public. Bates’ attorneys, Brewster & De Angelis, appeared to be represented by another law firm, according to an online court document filed Friday afternoon by Frederic Dorwart Lawyers.

Warren Crittenden and his attorney Brett Swab

Tulsa World News reports that Warren Crittenden is a critical figure who has testified before the grand jury. Crittenden was a corporal in Internal Affairs at the Sheriff’s Office. He wrote reports in a 2009 internal probe regarding former Tulsa County Reserve Deputy Robert Bates. Crittendon has said that he felt pressured to sign off on memorandums he didn’t write. Those memos stated Bates was capable of performing the functions of a patrol deputy and should be granted advanced reserve status based on the “outstanding ability” he had shown in the field.

“Crittendon has said that he felt pressured to sign off on memorandums he didn’t write. Those memos stated Bates was capable of performing the functions of a patrol deputy and should be granted advanced reserve status based on the “outstanding ability” he had shown in the field.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? The word that comes to mind for this kind of nonsense is FIRED!!!! How D U M B can you be?

Hey Racer. Yeah — that “severely criticized in this community, and it’s uncalled for” conveys a departure from reality. Bates shot a restrained man and claimed he mistook his gun for his taser. There was no need to taser him. He was already restrained with a cop’s knee on his neck.

I mean i can’t believe this sheriff even said that. as i’m reading this i’m thinking why is this sheriff even testifying at the grand jury, can what he says be used against him when he’s charged??
and after those comments the fact that he’s still sheriff is UNBELIEVABLE!
that’s not someone who’s got enough sense to think of something slightly less offensive about a man who was murdered by his office, how is he entrusted to such an important office? forget that he’s a coldblooded asshole who doesn’t think its such a “bad thing” that someone he hired killed a citizen, he doesn’t even think the killer should be out any money for it!!

So odd for a senior citizen wanting to be a “pay-to-play” (Eric Harris’ family term) deputy.

I am beginning to wonder if Bates liked being the master of the situation after the Sheriff overseers would have a suspect restrained.

It was the same kind of situation when Terry Byrum was handcuffed by deputies, and Bates went up and tasered Terry. Perhaps, Master Bates got pleasure out of tasering Terry while Terry was already restrained.

“An Oklahoma sheriff quickly decided to resign Wednesday after being indicted by a grand jury that investigated his office following the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a volunteer deputy who said he mistook his handgun for a stun gun.

Grand jurors indicted Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz on two misdemeanor counts. One accuses the longtime sheriff of refusing to perform his official duties for not promptly releasing documents in an internal investigation related to volunteer deputy Robert Bates, his longtime friend.”

Did ya hear?? Sheriff Rosco P ColdBlooded has been indicted! The grand jury indicted him of a few misdemeanors for withholding evidence etc..
he’s also just quit, so i’m hoping he’s promptly stripped of his pension too.
since that loser thinks his buddy shouldn’t have lost all the money since being indicted for killing a man playing cops&robbers on his watch, its only fair for Sheriff share in his friend financial troubles. y’know, they’re such friends and all.

god i love this story! the reporter got to talk to a enthusiastic juror that told it like it is. this cop needs prison & so does his partner who didn’t testify for him, bcuz he ALSO shot a kid in the back & killed him a few months later.
Just imagine how so many prosecutors are willing to do this to ppl they know are innocent of the fake charges & allow the cops to lie in court.

On September 23, a St. Louis city jury acquitted 20-year-old Keyon Bennett, who is black, of all four felony charges for which he was charged, based on the testimony of a white city police officer. The jury did not believe that on June 11, 2014 Bennett pointed a gun at Officer James Zwilling before he fired one or possibly more shots at Bennett in the Greater Ville neighborhood. They did not believe that Bennett was carrying a gun at all,

The other officer who assisted Zwilling that day was Officer Jason Flanery, who shot and killed VonDerrit Myers Jr. less than four months laterwhile working private security in the Shaw neighborhood on October 8, 2014.

The EYE talked with a juror after the verdict to hear why the jury came to their decision. Juror Sarah Stout told the EYE that all but two of the 12 jurors immediately agreed that the officer was not telling the truth. But it did not take long for the other two jurors to find holes in Zwilling’s story as well, she said.

And if they did not believe that Bennett had a gun and was threatening Zwilling’s life, then Zwilling illegally fired a gun at the backs of three young black men. That act could cost Zwilling his job, and he could even face criminal charges. To some of the jurors, that seemed like enough motivation for Zwilling to fabricate a story, Stout said – a story that could have wrongfully put Bennett in jail for many years had the jury believed the officer.

According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, Zwilling was investigated after the incident, as are all officers who discharge their weapons. As of press time, the department had not responded whether or not the investigation was closed.

Conflicting accounts

Bennett testified that he and his two friends were driving in a Cadillac with tinted windows on North Euclid Avenue at around 4 p.m. on June 11, 2014. At a stop sign, they passed a police vehicle, which flipped around and began tailing them. Zwilling said the officers began to follow the car because it “rolled through” the stop sign. He said he and Flanery were on patrol in the Greater Ville neighborhood to conduct “self-initiated activity” in attempts to combat crime.

Bennett said his friend Anthony Tobias was driving the Cadillac, and he was sitting in the passenger seat. Brian Davis was riding in the back seat, he said. Tobias testified that he took a quick right turn onto Cote Brillante Avenue and sped away from the cop car because they had two guns in the car. One gun was with Davis in the back seat, he said, and one was wedged into the driver’s seat and the center console. Davis and Bennett also said the two guns were in those positions.

Tobias said he only drove one block before he crashed on the corner of Marcus Avenue and Cote Brillante. All three said they got out of the car and started running, but left the guns in the car.

Bennett said they were all running across a vacant lot, and Zwilling was chasing them on foot. All three heard Zwilling fire his weapon – while their backs were turned and running away. Tobias said he was able to escape the scene, but Davis and Bennett were arrested. Neither Davis nor Tobias said they saw Bennett take a gun when they ran.

Zwilling’s account of the chase differs significantly. He said only two people were in the car, and Bennett was driving the Cadillac. Davis got out of the passenger side, he said, and he saw Davis toss his gun onto the passenger seat before they took off running. Bennett ran in the field, and at one point he turned around and pointed a gun at him, Zwilling claimed. Fearing for his safety, Zwilling said, he fired his weapon. Bennett then dropped his gun in the field before he started running again, Zwilling said.

Prosecuting attorney Mobayonle Omolara Osundare showed photos taken by an evidence technician showing one gun on the seat of the car and the other in the field. The men did not have permits to carry the guns, Zwilling said. Osundare told The St. Louis American that there were no fingerprints taken from the guns found at the scene.

Zwilling’s supervising officer testified that only one bullet was missing from Zwilling’s weapon when he arrived. However, the evidence technician testified that he could not find the shell casing from Zwilling’s gunshot. The shell casing would confirm where Zwilling was standing when he fired his gun.

Bennett’s defense attorney Erika Wurst pointed to the evidence photo of the car where the gun was pictured on the passenger seat. She said it showed “lots of stuff” on the seats. She questioned Zwilling if the officers had touched anything in the car, and he said, “No.” If that was the case, Wurst said, the men would have been sitting on piles of things as they traveled in the car. Bennett said that those things were not on the seats when they got out of the car.

In Wurst’s cross examination of Zwilling, she said, “There are specific protocols for when you can use a firearm. … And if anyone found out that you shot your firearm at someone when you weren’t in fear of your life or someone else’s, there could be some serious consequences.”

Zwilling said, “Yes.”

“You could lose your job,” she said. “You could be demoted. You could be investigated by Internal Affairs. You could possibly be criminally charged for that.”

He said, “Right.”

The jury speaks

Stout said the jury members felt there were too many holes in Zwilling’s story. Stout, who is a social worker, said she watched the body language of all those who testified on September 22. She was especially watching Zwilling because he was the only person who testified on the prosecutor’s side that was actually present during the event in question.

“He did not seem very sure of what he was saying,” she said. “He was touching his mouth a lot and looking away. It just didn’t seem like a good testimony. A lot of people agreed.”

Stout also said that the jury agreed that the car clearly looked ransacked and searched but they couldn’t understand why Zwilling would say he didn’t search the car.

The best witness was Anthony Tobias, she said, who took the stand in an orange jail suit. He had an “I don’t have anything to lose” attitude because he was already in jail, she said. Most people felt his testimony was most genuine, and his story corroborated Bennett’s.

The idea that the Bennett would have grabbed the gun from the seat when the police were only seconds behind them also seemed questionable to the jury, Stout said.

“It didn’t make sense,” she said. “When your main objective is to get away, we didn’t believe that he would grab it.”

Stout said that they didn’t feel Bennett was innocent of wrongdoing, but he wasn’t guilty of the charges. When the judge read the rules to the jury, he explained that the charge was resisting felony arrest, and the felony was having the gun and pointing the gun. It wasn’t resisting arrest for speeding away, she said.

“If we can’t find him guilty of pointing the gun, he can’t be guilty of resisting arrest for the charge we found him not guilty of,” she said.

The jury also wondered why Zwilling’s partner, Flanery, didn’t take the stand in his defense.

“Someone said, ‘If that was my partner, I’d be so mad,’” Stout said. “None of us knew that he was the one who killed VonDerrit.”

When she read The St. Louis American’s report on the case, she said she literally gasped when she saw that Flanery killed Myers.

Wurst’s closing arguments in Bennett’s defense were bold, Stout said. She told them that they needed to find Bennett innocent because Zwilling lied. He lied about only two people being in the car, and he was lying that Bennett had a gun.

“She said it multiple times,” Stout said. “She was just saying it. And when I looked at Osundare, she looked pissed.”

When asked if the jury discussed whether or not they thought Zwilling planted the gun in the field, she said, “Yes.”

“I think he definitely might have,” Stout said. “He’s a fairly new police officer. He might have been scared.”